Like many other aspects of modern life, our view of trash has been constructed. The word “trash” is thought to have originated from a Scandinavian word meaning “rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs” somewhere around the year 1518. The use of the word as a verb meaning “discard as worthless” came later, in 1895. All “trash” (as a noun) can be thought of as the result of “trashing” as a verb: trash is really something that humans make. It’s hard to think of trash as being something naturally-occurring, because in nature the concept of a by-product doesn’t really apply. From the water cycle to the plants that grow, die, and help grow other plants, nature abounds in examples of reuse.

New Dream got the idea for the Upcycled Decoration contest from the many exciting developments in “trash art” spearheaded by artists and craftspeople all over the world. Besides wanting to encourage low-waste holiday fun, we also see the contest as an exercise in vision.

Trash has its own honored place outside every dwelling, yet it is often not seen. Trash is sort of a miracle of modern duality: it exists, it fills up landfills and seeps into waterways, yet it is not visible, its power (for good or ill) disregarded because it is simply not part of the economic equation, not factored in to the true cost of a product. Upcycling waste materials means freeing junk from invisibility, and freeing ourselves to encounter the world as it is. Many have decried the disconnectedness of modern life, saying that our atomized, virtual existence is to blame for consumption habits that despoil the earth without our ever really noticing. Exercises like No Impact Week (starting October 18) and the decorating contest ask us first of all to sit up and take notice: stop your hand on the way from its automatic (unseen) gesture towards the trash can: what are you “trashing” and what other choices do you have?

Imagine a really satisfying story or an evocative piece of music: what makes them so compelling? Chances are their appeal lies in two factors: the richness or multiplicity of reference points and their applicability to human life. That is, in how much they have to say and how well they say it to you. Upcycled art has built in to its materials the story of being thought of, made, and then used up. Upcycled materials are nuggets of cultural and technological history, broadly speaking; they also reflect an individual’s choices, the wear and tear from a specific human. The Bottle Village in California and the paper bag art of Yuken Teruya are the opposite of trash and worthlessness. They are a representation of something that was, and what that thing still is after it technically blipped off the screen of our vision. Like the whimsical bags made of recycled material found at the Origin: London Craft Fair, upcycled craft projects can be fun. So as you prepare for No Impact week or consider holiday decoration ideas, look for trash as it happens in your own vision. Rifling through what we habitually ignore can reveal surprising value.

Posted in Art, Consumption, Language, Simplify the Holidays, Trash  | |  

About the Author

Kim works in the IT department and is from a psychology, human rights, and health care advocacy background.